The present invention relates broadly to fuzing devices and in particular to a clutter discriminating fuze apparatus.
In general, a fuze is a mechanism for igniting or detonating the bursting charge of a projectile, and it performs this function either upon impact or at a certain time during flight. When designed to function on impact it is classed as an impact or percussion fuze, and when designed to function at some predetermined time after the projectile leaves the gun it is classed as a time fuze. A combination fuze combines both time and percussion elements. These are normally set for time action but will function on impact should the time element fail or should impact occur before the time element causes functioning. Classed according to the assembled position in the projectile, there are point fuzes, which are assembled into the nose of shell, and base fuzes, which are assembled into the base.
With the advent of electronics into modern warfare, fuzing has become quite sophisticated and in turn so has the electronic counter measures which are utilized in defense thereof. The present invention is quite versatile in that it has the capability to discriminate against both active and passive electronic countermeasure techniques.